Postdoc Kerri Seger listens to whales in Colombia

Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Postdoctoral researcher Kerri Seger speaks into a microphone

Kerri Seger, a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering (SMSOE) and the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant to conduct research in Colombia this summer. There, she will conduct the first passive acoustic monitoring study in a humpback whale breeding ground that is also a marine sanctuary. The study will provide benchmark noise pollution data prior to the scheduled building of an international port nearby.

“This project is a good parallel to my doctoral and post-doctoral work,” says Seger, who works with marine acoustician Jennifer Miksis-Olds, SMSOE associate director of research, and studied humpback whale soundscapes in Mexico for her dissertation. “So the recording techniques and how to mathematically understand the sound environment is something I have already done in a Spanish-speaking country.”